M:tG backstory...

I'm innocently curious about the world that Magic:The Gathering takes place in., but I know next to nothing about it (heck, I can't even remember the name.) Does anyone know of a website or something that outlines the world of M:tG? Or feel willing to give me some poop on it?

Crothian has the meat of it. Basically, all the wizards are Planeswalkers. You hop from plane to plane and the planes are constantly bumping into each other and getting mixed up. Kind of like a giant fruit salad, only with more ingredients and a higher chance of spontaneous combustion.

"I asked Dave to please send me his rules additions, for I thought a whole new system should be developed. A few weeks after his visit I received 18 or so handwritten pages of rules and notes pertaining to his campaign, and I immediately began work on a brand new manuscript. "Greyhawk" campaign started —the first D&D campaign! About three weeks later, I had some 100 typewritten pages, and we began serious play-testing in Lake Geneva, while copies were sent to the Twin Cities and to several other groups for comment. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS had been born."
— EGG, Dragon #7

Honestly, the best way to experience the settings is to play the game, and see how the cards reveal the setting. I find it's a much more magical experience than simply reading a setting book. I like getting snippets here and there. Some art, some quotes of famous texts, some evocative names.

Great stuff.

Quick overview, though. In the beginning there was Dominaria, a huge world. This was the main focus of the first few sets, though there was only a vague sense of what the setting really was.

Since Magic was predicated on the myth of the planeswalker, who goes out, finds magic of the multiverse, and uses it to battle his opponents, they started to branch out to other planes. First was Phyrexia, a rumored realm where mechanical monstrosities lurked, but it was not the focus of a set, merely hinted at. Then came the Homelands setting, which is apparently where Sengir and Serra came from (two iconic names from the world of Magic -- one a vampire, one an angel).

Then came Rath, a plane where an evil warlord was building an army for an invasion. For a while there was an attempt to have an over-arching storyline, with the cards printed following the travels and conflicts of a group of heroes aboard the airship Weatherlight. The Weatherlight was a cool idea, but the execution was too forced, so you'd have cards that were representing specific, but rather boring, moments of a story, rather than being iconic and epic.

The Weatherlight crew went from Dominaria, to Rath, to a shadow plane, to Mercadia, then back to Dominaria in time to defend against an invasion from Phyrexia. After that, the world basically ended, and for a few sets you had a primal world of the aftermath of that war, which was kinda nifty.

Then the designers decided to take advantage of Magic's idiom, and they cast their net wider, leaving Dominaria and that entire storyline behind, in favor of new worlds.

First was Mirrodin, where creatures grew naturally with metal, the seas were made of mercury, and all manner of strange artifacts vied with natural life in a conflict of man and machine.

Then was Kamigawa, the land of 1000 legends. It was based vaguely on Japanese mythology, with some nice twists and great, evocative characters. Unfortunately the set was somewhat weak competitively, so it's been dissed a bit.

Now comes Ravnica: City of Guilds. It is a massive plane entirely composed of mighty stone skyscrapers, aqueducts, sewers, wild parks, and endless, endless buildings. It takes a really cool tack at setting and rules, using some of the core elements of Magic game design, and manifesting them into the setting in a way that manages to seem wholly organic. It's quite cool.

Then was Kamigawa, the land of 1000 legends. It was based vaguely on Japanese mythology, with some nice twists and great, evocative characters. Unfortunately the set was somewhat weak competitively, so it's been dissed a bit.

Um, have you seen what the Kamigawa block did for mono-green and for white weenie? With the Boros Legion out there now courtesy of Ravnica, I dread to think what red/white Samurai decks are gonna be capable of when supported by some of those Radiance effects. Plus, it was almost fun enough a set to get me back into the game after the travesty that was the Mirrodin block, and Darksteel in particular.

Returning to topic, they've had some wonderfully cool worlds and storylines. Kamigawa was certainly a fave, the idea of the Kami War was great. My personal favourite though is the Odyssey/Onslaught blocks, with the Cabal and the Order tearing strips off of each other. The Patriarch was a great villain, completely self centred and caring for only one thing: profit. Yet he could be such a nice guy, unlike the Order leaders (Major Teroh, I'm looking in you direction you murderous facist loony).

Maybe its just me, but complaints about 4th Ed D&D not respecting D&D's history strike me as being like complaining about the shape your play-doh comes in.

I havn't played magic in years. My newest cards are 4th edition I belive. I always liked that the storyline was always vauge. It seemed to fit with the personalities of the planeswalkers, I mean face it they were basically demigods what would they really care about the lives and personalities of the poor bastards they summoned to fight for them. I've often toyed with the idea of running a D&D game loosely based on the setting idea and actually have the players play planehopping demigods turning the multiverse into their own little sandbox but I've dismissed it thusfar as being far to easy for my players to turn into complete anarchy.

Originally Posted by diaglo
Olgar Shiverstone or other new edition DM: so i've gotta wrap up the campaign..
diaglo: we could play OD&D(1974) the only true game. All the other editions are..
other gamer: i could run a campaign set in space with ninja pirates.
other gamers: done. when do we start.
diaglo:

Yep, a true M:tG RPG would either be epic play or PCs would live in continual fear of being Called [with legend subtype] by a plainswalker. Death will be the most likly outcome and far worse being possible.

Unfortunatly there will never be any official Wotc M:tG D&D settings. While the Wotc D&D people are willing to omit the "Planeswalker threat" to make the setting "fun" or "playable", the WotC M:tG people say, "No you cannot remove the planeswalkers because they are the core of the magic concept".

Now i can not say for sure, but, i would also bet they would say "No you cannot make an RPG where players are the Planeswalkers because they might play less actual M:tG."